Tropical brew

I remember when it used to be all about the apples.

But, happily, cider is changing. Cidermakers all over the country are following in the footsteps of craft brewers by looking beyond traditional ingredients and incorporating a wide variety of fruits, spices and other ingredients into their products. Hops, ginger, jalapeños, tea, coconut, grapefruit, rose petals and cactus flesh have all found their way into ciders recently.

But more than any other single added ingredient, pineapple (among my favorite fruits) seems to be having its day. At the recent San Francisco Cider Summit, the annual cider tasting held in the Presidio, pineapple-infused apple ciders flowed from taps and bottles in all directions. Schilling Cider, from Washington state, was pouring its Passport Pineapple and Passionfruit. Jester & Judge, also from Washington, was offering a cider called Pineapple Express. New West Cider, from Portland, Ore., had a pina colada cider. Reverend Nat’s, also of Portland, was pouring Viva la Pineapple! I saw one cider called Pineapple Macaroon (I think it also had coconut), and another named Pineapple Paradise. I tasted one made with pineapples that had been grilled before going into the pot. Sadly, I can’t say I could distinctly taste pineapple in that one, though the owners certainly went to some trouble to make the stuff.

Ace Cider, in Sebastopol, makes what it claims on its website to be the “first pineapple cider developed in the world.”

Golden State Cider, also based in Sebastopol and rapidly growing into one of the state’s best-known cider brands, also has a new pineapple cider out in cans, but it won’t be around for long. Called Radical Paradise, the cider is fermented with apples, fresh pineapple and cinnamon sticks, and the company is already sold out. Look for whatever is left in four-packs at your better craft-beverage outlets.

Jolie Devoto, co-founder of Golden State, told me the pineapples—fresh and ground—were added after fermentation of the apple juice.

“We let the bin sit open air overnight, and then pressed it the next day and blended it into dry cider,” she says. “After that, we topped off the carbonation and packaged it.”

The pineapples give an acidic, spicy zest to the dry cider, though the flavor is subtle. An acidic blend of apples, one might speculate, could produce much the same effect.

Pineapples are finding their way into craft breweries, too. The iconic tropical fruit is appearing in IPAs, sours and saisons. There have even been a surprisingly large, though widely scattered, number of pineapple stouts—the strangest sounding style I have yet to taste in the craft beer kingdom. Cigar City Brewing, in Tampa, Fla., once made a Rum French Oak Pineapple Cocoa Stout. (Read that twice if you need to.) Storm Brewing in British Columbia made a pineapple chocolate stout. Tacoma Brewing Co. once made an oak-aged pineapple stout. Online reviews indicated the pineapple could not be tasted. I suppose some consumers are comforted just knowing they are eating, or drinking, pineapple.

IPAs are a natural fit for pineapple, and one of the more notable Nor Cal selections is the Pineapple Shake hazy IPA made by San Francisco’s Bare Bottle Brewing Co. After all, fruity hops are wildly popular, and tropical fruits of many sorts are often added to hop-heavy styles to complement the flavors. Thus, it’s not surprising to see pineapple finding its way into cider and beer, even though we can’t always tell that it’s there.